To think if you live in a London Borough you live in London

[MariahLynn]

Saw this on twitter and thought about it twitter.com/yougov/status/1319226163278057472?s=21

Why does this create such controversy?

Surely If you live in a London Borough you are part of London.

I can’t see how anyone can live somewhere which has red buses, can vote for London mayor, pays council tax to a London Borough and maintain they live in Essex or Kent or Surrey.

Is it about pretending to be posher?

@flaviaritt

Watford is in Hertfordshire. It’s a separate town to London, though on the border. I couldn’t care less what others think, though.

Watford has a tube station! (Ok it’s overground but it’s on the London Underground).

I do agree though. I used to live in Bushey, I described it as London suburbs. We had a London area code and a Watford postcode

UncomfortableSilence

I live in a London borough but have an Essex postal code, it causes no end of arguments on the local Facebook page about wether we are London or Essex.

I'll add in another bit of variety. I don't live in a London borough but I do have a London borough postcode. I can see why people get confused. 😂

People say that outer London often feels like their previous county.

But I have to disagree. Croydon, Bromley, Ilford, Barking, Sutton and Harrow don’t exactly resemble the shires. These places are multicultural and urban.

Maybe they did 50 years ago but certainly not today.

Actually Rompford is probably the only exception on the list.

I work for a Bank and so visit branches in London and the south east.

I live near Bromley and yes it may have a BR1 postcode and yes some people may (for historical reasons, nothing else) address letters to "Bromley, Kent" but it is NOT in flipping Kent! Bromley residents pay their council tax to the LONDON BOROUGH of Bromley (clue is in the name) not to Kent County Council and they are able to elect the Mayor of London and the London assembly, something which people who actually live in Kent can't do. And of course nowadays there is an additional difference: people in Bromley can't mix households indoors (because they are part of London and therefore in tier 2) whilst those in Kent can.Yes it was once in Kent, but it has been part of London since 1965! My part of London was also once in Kent (it moved on 1889), but it would be ridiculous nowadays to refer to it as being in Kent!

Oh and also the M25 is not and never has been the border of London. There are plenty of places (Epsom, Ashtead for example) which are within the M25 boundaries, but do not lie within a London borough.

YANBU OP.

Watford has a tube station! (Ok it’s overground but it’s on the London Underground).

Yeah, but still not London. Amersham is on the Tube as well.

Born & raised Londoner here. When I was young everyone from Croydon said they lived in Surrey but now lots of people from there say they live in London.
Everyone I know who lives in Mitcham or Thornton Heath says they live in Surrey. 😆

My dad lives in an actual village, in a semi rural area of Kent (his house is entirely surrounded by fields) and they come under London Borough of Bromley (hence tier 2) although his postal address is Kent.

Certainly couldn't fit a red bus through there, can barely fit my small car down the country lanes!

No controversy though in that he's quite happy to say it's part of a London borough, but it's definitely not "London" to me

I'm just a bit that some people think Slough and Reading are in London. WTF?!?

I'm sure someone once told me straight face they were from London, the Milton Keynes bit.

@headstrong27

I’m not sure people think Thornton Health and Mitcham when they think Surrey.

I would say some parts of Bromley are much more similar to places in Kent then they are to inner London zones.

@MariahLynn I completely agree but the people I know from there say they live in Surrey. They all have CR postcodes.

This just reminded me of an overseas client of mine from many years ago who bought several buy to let flats as investments, sight unseen. He wanted to sue as the seller had told him they were "just outside London". They were in Leeds!

Not a London borough though

In response to pp saying it was defined by what's inside the M25

I'm from Croydon, London doesn't stop at all before it gets to Croydon, either down the a23 or if you go through South Norwood, it's a continuous part of the London landscape. The opposition to it being London is mostly snobbish imo

Sutton on the other hand...

In the same vein when you think of London living, Carshalton Beeches or Bromley doesn't come to my mind. Like New York, I picture Manhattan not Staten Island.

Whilst I pay Council tax to a London Borough (that other than education, misspends it in my opinion), when asked where I live state the town, not 'London'. Other than when abroad and speaking in the local language.

I've just realised that I'm old. I consider anywhere that used to have an 01 dialling code to be London. If you're not 01, you're not London.

I lived I Herts, got London weighting at work, could see the m25 from my house, not London though. Who cares.

@Chanjer

But isn’t Sutton zone 5 like Croydon, so presumably the same as Croydon.

I guess in theory if you don't have a London postcode you're not really in London although I do think of places like Croydon as part of London.

@Svalberg

I get irritated by drop down menus that insist upon a county (Surrey) and won't let you leave it blank. And London isn't an option for a county. I live in London, not bloody Surrey!

Where do you live?

Actually if live in a 'London Borough of xxx' then that's London and the line is drawn there. Towns outside these boroughs aren't in London

I find it confusing when I hear people talk about places like Bromley & surrounding areas as "London". I grew up in Kent & had family in north Kent, with Kent in their address. They always came under London borough councils but never said they lived in London.

I suppose that was going back 40-50 years, & times have changed. I don't think it's a snobbery thing to say you live in Kent, it's probably more to do with history.

And like most places, there's posh bits of Kent & not posh bits of Kent.

Brentford, Croydon, Harrow, Epping, Windsor, Twickenham are not London.